On 26 August 2026, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Autistici Inventati, an Italy-based data-hosting association, to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List and designated it as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). OFAC acted under Executive Order 13224, the counter-terrorism authority first issued on 23 September 2001, as amended by Executive Order 13886.
The same designation also named four further targets: Palestine Action, a UK-based group; Masar Badil, also known as the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement; and two individuals, Zaid Abdulnasser and Rawa Alsagheer. Each was listed under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224, and each carries the program tag [SDGT] on the OFAC Recent Actions notice that OFAC posted the same day.
The immediate legal effect is blocking. In practical terms, any assets the five parties hold inside the United States, or that sit in the hands of US persons anywhere, are frozen from the date of the listing, have to be reported to OFAC, and may not be dealt in; US persons are broadly barred from transacting with them.
The Italian host at the centre of the action
Of the five, the Autistici Inventati listing speaks directly to technology and hosting providers. OFAC's SDN entry records the association as founded in 2001 and registered for data-processing and hosting activity, with a business address at Strada Statale Abetone e del Brennero 253 in San Giuliano Terme, Province of Pisa, Italy. The entry lists www.autistici.org as its website, and the association operates the "Noblogs" publishing platform.
Treasury's stated rationale is that the entity supplies "specialised digital architecture, tools, and services for Antifa cells and other violent far-left extremists," including website hosting, encrypted email, and chat and video-conferencing services. Treasury also said the association has provided services to sanctioned terrorist organisations such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “political terrorism has no place in our society” and pledged to “cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.”
The other designees
Palestine Action, a UK-based group that also appears under the alias Palestine Action Group, was established on 30 July 2020 and was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in July 2025; OFAC's SDN entry records its type as a transnational terrorist group. Masar Badil, established in October 2021 and with listed addresses across Brazil, Germany, Canada, Belgium, and Spain, is tied by Treasury to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the previously sanctioned Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
OFAC also ties the two individuals to Masar Badil. Zaid Abdulnasser, also listed as "Zid Tamim," is a Palestinian national born in 1995 and based in Germany. Rawa Alsagheer, also listed as Ruwaa Al-Saghir, is a Palestinian national born in 1997 and based in Brazil. Both were designated under section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224, as amended.
The legal machinery behind the tag
Executive Order 13224 is the standing US framework for blocking the property of persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism. The SDGT tag is the label OFAC applies to parties designated under that order. Because the designations were made under the counter-terrorism authority rather than a country programme, they reach conduct wherever it occurs and attach directly to the named parties, which is why an Italian hosting association and individuals resident in Germany and Brazil can appear on the same US list.
Treasury framed the move as building on earlier steps against the same milieu, citing the State Department's designation of Antifa and three violent antifa groups on 13 November 2025, and the October 2024 joint US-Canada sanctions on Samidoun. A companion State Department notice accompanies the OFAC action. The listings sit within the broader architecture of targeted financial sanctions that global regulators use to freeze terrorist financing.
What blocking means for compliance teams
For sanctions and AML functions, the operational response is immediate. Screening systems must be updated so that Autistici Inventati, Palestine Action, Masar Badil, Zaid Abdulnasser and Rawa Alsagheer, together with their listed aliases, are captured against customer, counterparty and payment records. Any blocked property must be frozen and reported to OFAC, and firms should check for indirect exposure through the "50 percent rule," under which any entity owned 50 percent or more, in the aggregate, by one or more blocked persons is itself treated as blocked even if it is not separately listed.
For technology, hosting and payments providers, the Autistici Inventati entry is the one to study. Here the blocked party sits in the infrastructure layer rather than at a bank counter, which means the flows at risk are subscription charges, domain and hosting fees, and any revenue routed through the Noblogs service. Registrars, cloud vendors, payment processors, and the banks behind them should read "supplying a designated host" as an act of facilitation that US persons are prohibited from carrying out.
Exposure is not limited to US firms. Treasury warned that foreign financial institutions risk secondary sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for the designated parties. Non-US banks and fintechs that process euro or other payments touching these names therefore face the same practical need to screen, block and file that a US institution does, mirroring the cross-border sanctions compliance obligations now being formalised in other jurisdictions.
What stands out in this round is the SDGT tool's reach into the internet's plumbing, placing a hosting association and a blogging platform under the same freeze that applies to the named individuals and advocacy groups beside them. The practical to-do list is short: refresh screening lists with the new names and aliases, review any past dealings with them, and watch for further designations, which Treasury has indicated are likely against these networks. Read the full Treasury announcement, "Treasury Takes Action Against Violent Far-Left Terrorist Networks," on the Treasury website.
